End of Internship

Hello again! I’m now back home as my internship ended last Thursday. In this post, I’ll try to summarize what I managed to do and what I learnt from this experience.

The first technique was titration. I started from finding sources and reading them. Then I made the protocol and started filming. The main difficulty was to find out how to obtain the best quality of the video. I published the first version and got some really nice feedback. I went back to the lab and made the second version, and now finished the post production – so the final video is waiting to be published. In the meantime, high school students came to the Uni to give us feedback on the project.

The second video was standard solutions. This was much easier to do – firstly because the technique itself was a bit shorter, secondly because I had more experience after the first video.

The third video – a technique that took me the most time – was distillation. I’ve only recently published the first version for feedback.

I also managed to write protocols for a few more techniques and video one of them – filtration.

So, what did I learn from the internship? Firstly, I practiced the techniques. Secondly, how you can never be sure if you know something until you start teaching it. Teaching requires being proficient at things, so you’ll notice fast if you’re not good enough at something. Moreover, at first I thought that three videos in seven weeks is a joke and I could easily do even 20. Only when I started making videos, did I realize how wrong I had been.

So, to sum up, I really enjoyed the internship – it was a nice challenge and a very good work experience, no matter what career path I will choose after Uni.

I would like to thank some people for making this easier for me to do what I managed to. Firstly, I’d like to thank Dr Michael Seery for giving me the opportunity and for introducing me to the project. Secondly, to Ms Elaine Sutherland and Ms Kirsty Bain for invaluable help in the lab. To Dr Murray Low, Dr Robin Vevers and Dr Kristy Turner for huge help with the scientific part of the project, and to Euan, Amy and Helen for being great help as well.

I will, of course, follow the project and will see you in my fifth year! 🙂